


Our Lack Thereof

by FPSCanarussia



Series: Our Lack Thereof [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Future, Gen, HFY, Humanity is Awesome, Magic, Magic Revealed, Magical Realism, Sufficiently Analyzed Magic, TRIUMF (British Columbia)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 16:36:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11339274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FPSCanarussia/pseuds/FPSCanarussia
Summary: (Crossposted from Reddit/HFY)A quick summary of events following the discovery of Magic.Experimental, possible backstory to future works. Any authors are free to use any elements created by me for this work.





	Our Lack Thereof

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from the HFY subreddit.

On March 17, 2022, at 17:54:11.3, the Tri-University Meson Facility (TRIUMF) in British Columbia made the most important recording of short-lived isotopes in the history of mankind. This would not be discovered for 2 days, until a physicist poring over data noticed an inexplicable anomaly. 

It seemed the facility’s primary cyclotron, in addition to its typical produce of proton beams, synthesised a particle that, while behaving similarly enough to a proton to pass through the system, wreaked havoc in regards to the paths of multiple particles. The behavior was far too odd to be accounted for by experimental error, as it seemingly violated the known laws of particle physics.

The data from the discovery was shared with the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) after being found by multiple researchers to be odd enough.

It only took 5 months for the team at the LHC to notice behavior consistent with predictions by Canadian scientists regarding the inexplicable particle. The research was tentatively published, and international newspapers picked up the story for their ‘Science and Innovation’ sections. Worldwide, hypotheses were being made and theories being tested.

Surprisingly, the same country that made the original discovery was also responsible for the second-greatest discovery in history. It was the University of Toronto that, thanks to unexpected-yet-helpful data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNOLAB), managed to trap atoms charged with the ‘new’ particles inside a crystal lattice. Consequently, it was a light and careless brush from one of Canada’s leading physicists that is credited with changing the course of human history.

It was a Canon XH-A1s that captured the video in 1080/30p. The 30 fps video of a scientist’s face and body quite literally _morphing_ into a foreign-yet-familiar shape, extremely similar yet unimaginably different from the one it took 30 seconds ago, was surprisingly fascinating. When it made its way onto the internet less than 2 hours later, there was almost certainly at least one person utilising the footage for relaxation purposes.

Within 6 hours, the video went viral.

By the time Snopes.com started attempting to validate the video, the University had released a statement that the matter was still confidential. When Buzzfeed did a report on the meme spawned by the leaked footage, all those involved made a decision.

“MAGIC IS REAL” could summarize every newspaper headline published on August 29th, 2022. While the tone varied from jocular to panicked, the facts were reported straight. One of the most prestigious centres of higher learning in the world had reported that they had discovered an unknown force controlled seemingly by thought. It had turned one of their scientists into an elf.

Within a month, every high-level research institution on the planet was performing the same experiment.

From the University of Sydney to Moscow State, reports came. The accidental discovery was, indeed, very much real.

Humanity adapted to the news with our usual grace and poise. The political situation was at its most tense since the end of the Cold War. No scientist could talk the fanatics down.

Did magic have many applications? Yes.

Did it have as many as electromagnetic force? Possibly.

Did we know how it worked? Somewhat.

Did we know why it worked? No, but the same was true for gravity.

Did it prove the existence of God? No.

Did it disprove the existence of God? No. 

Did it prove the existence of souls?

That last one was a tough question. Was magic limited to humans, tied to some innate property of sophonts, or was it merely controlled by mere thought? The answer… no. Magic, it seemed, could be controlled by anything with thoughts or desires. Animals, plants, even computers. Our own complex minds made the magic of others seem weak by comparison, but it was there.

After the riots quieted down, the entire world was beleaguered by a single question. What could magic do? As it turns out, the answer was: everything we had imagined. Within mere years immortality was a solved problem, and energy crises were a thing of the past. We learned how to channel magic like we do electricity, going from foci to runes. Wands and crystals were like optical lenses, and many materials acted like layers of circuitry. We developed runic alphabets like we had developed C and Lisp, intended to provide easy and understandable functions in the same way as a computer programming language. Despite the analog-like nature of runic programming, the success was unparalleled.

The world started to look futuristic. Functional flying cars were easy, as was teleportation. Of course, this ‘teleportation’ only moved you at 76% c, but who was complaining? Our Magisters and Wizards, former scientists and engineers, were happy.

Despite the fantastical nature of the force that permeated our new lives, we had earned this power. We did not make deals with devils, or beg gods, or get things handed to us on a silver platter. Our civilization was built on science, and our ‘magic’ was nothing more than thaumic force. Strange sure, but in the way that string theory was strange. Nothing deserving of the SCP Foundation.

It was a team at Virginia tech that made the third-greatest discovery in human history, with funding from companies such as SpaceX. Despite our new-found power, space travel could not exceed established relativistic limits. We only had our single Mars colony, and a base on the Moon comparable to the Concordia Research Station in Antarctica. A team of accomplished mages, artificers, and coders, former physics and engineering students alongside programmers, created a method of bending space four-dimensionally in a desired shape and relative direction.

Sending a machine to Mars created a portal, which nobody has called a wormhole ever since they added orange/blue backlighting. One by itself, with the right settings, created an Alcubierre Drive.

After a fierce debate, we tested the water with Proxima Centauri before proceeding to TRAPPIST-1. The stellar-wind swept planet we established a forward-base on was surprisingly uninteresting. The latter, not so much.

It was not so much the system itself that was interesting. 2 planets with large oceans, one with limited surface water, only one had an atmosphere breathable without terraforming. No noticeable life seems to have developed there, though we are unsure if there are any unicellular organisms in the depths. Nothing too special.

It was when we were setting up our base that the message arrived. None of us knew the language, if there was indeed one, but all of us could comprehend it. We had come to a system intended to be used in the future. We were not welcome. We would be eradicated.

We saw the ship appear in the sky. It was beautiful, reminiscent of an ancient barquentine, but on sails of woven plasma. The white-and-gold hull was shining. The bowsprit was ever-so-gently different from any earthly designs. The rudder seemed to be built in the middle, giving the ship an odd guitar-like appearance.

This description was compiled from the reports of those explorers who saw the ship in the seconds before a quick-witted member of the expedition’s nearly nonexistent security force sent a ground-to-air anti-aircraft missile at the vessel, responding to the threat.

I only got to see the ship’s burnt-out wreck, for I was installing the portal-drive at the time.

* * *

When alien scholars ask me the secret to our superiority, our rule of all the ‘foreign magicks’? They always assume it’s something we have that they don’t. They ask me about our biology, and the magic of our homeworld. My response to their queries is always the same, and so has become one of their greatest philosophical questions. “What it the secret of natural human magic?” “Our lack thereof.” It never fails to drive them insane trying to figure out the meaning of my words.

-Foreword to _Human Magick, and its Relation to Alien Arts_ by Mg. Circe Attenborough, PhD

**Author's Note:**

> I realise this is not a story, but an outline. I would appreciate critiques about other elements of this work.


End file.
